Nader wants the most Progressive on the left, who barely tolerate Democrats, to join Libertarians? [View all]

[stevenleser]

Last edited Thu May 1, 2014, 11:14 AM - Edit history (1)

As most of you know, I am around conservatives and right wingers a lot and the Libertarian ones among them are always asking me on and off the air whether I think there is a chance that progressives would vote for Rand Paul and support Libertarians in general.

I always give the same answer.

"You guys understand that many of these folks are routinely, almost continuously, upset at Democrats because they insist on Left-Progressive orthodoxy on a wide range of issues despite the fact that in my opinion, across the board the distances between mainstream Democratic thinking and Progressive orthodoxy are not particularly far. They routinely hammer Democrats each and every time they feel that distance is too great. You're not going to appeal to them by being fairly close to them on two or three issues, and light year distances away on the other 70. The first time one of those issues comes up where there are light year distances, they are going to run, not walk away from any proposed coalition, assuming you get any significant progressive group to begin to listen to you at all in the first place."

Now, I realize that despite the above missive, there are 1-3 progressive groups that might be tempted to explore this. Code Pink comes to mind and one or two progressive groups specifically aimed at marijuana/drug legalization are the other. But in the end, I think the leadership of those groups would be smart enough to understand that cozying up to the Libertarian right is a sure way to completely destroy their support in the progressive community and leave them with what? Support from Libertarians that would be tenuous at best anyway?

Not going to happen.

On Edit: Here is a video which seems really bizarre. As if Libertarians will try to raise the minimum wage or pass federal laws to regulate and reign in corporations. Will not happen.